Tuesday, 4 December 2012

Mental health disorders predispose individuals to driving under the influence

Mental health disorders predispose individuals to driving under the
influence

“Driving under the influence is generally a consequence
of problems, not their reason. Above all, an effort should be made to win over
young offenders and first timers,” Postdoctoral Researcher Karoliina Karjalainen
says.

People who drive under the influence (DUI) are a threat to other people.
However, do drunk drivers get enough help?Research by Karoliina Karjalainen, Postdoctoral Researcher
at the University of Tampere, shows that some mental health disorders predispose
individuals to DUI.Childhood and adolescence-onset disorders in particular, such as ADHD, are
associated with driving under the influence of drugs. This connection has also
been proved in other research.11 per cent of DUI offenders who have been caught by the police in Finland
have some kind of an emotional or behavioural disorder that has been diagnosed
in hospital.People suffering from both unipolar and bipolar mental health disorders have
a heightened risk of driving under the influence of both drugs and alcohol. A
unipolar disorder means mostly depression, the bipolar disorder used to be
called manic depression.“It was of course not surprising that many people who have been caught while
driving drunk or drugged have diagnosed substance abuse disorders. What was more
surprising was that other mental and behavioural disorders were also connected
with drunk driving,” Karjalainen says.Karjalainen works at the Research Collegium of the Institute for Advanced
Social Research. She is conducting research on the social and health related
exclusion of substance users in cooperation with the National Institute for
Welfare and Health.No to more punishmentKaroliina Karjalainen does not support the hard line that the DUI problems
could only be solved by tougher sentences. She thinks that more effort should be
put into prevention, i.e. at the very least to the social services of substance
abusers and the treatment of their mental health problems.“Driving under the influence is generally a consequence of problems, not
their reason. Above all, an effort should be made to win over young offenders
and first timers,” Karjalainen says.Getting caught is one point at which a person can be guided in new
directions. This has been the aim of the Tie selväksi (Road Clear)
project coordinated by the National Institute for Welfare and Health, for
instance, in which prompt intervention was offered to DUI offenders.Preventing DUI is not easy but Karjalainen hopes that doctors would be more
aware of the existence of the groups at risk.Alcohol interlocks workAlcohol interlocks in cars are one sure means of preventing driving under the
influence.“The alcohol interlock cannot detect drug use but then most people caught for
DUI drive under the influence of alcohol,” Karjalainen says.Every year, the police catch about 20,000 drunk drivers and 4,000 drugged
drivers.“However, one must remember that the drivers who get caught are just the tip
of the iceberg.”Prescription drugs also involvedThe mixed use of substances is common in DUI offenders who are apprehended by
the police. What is surprising is that 76 per cent of the DUI offenders caught
in 1977-2007 had benzodiazepines, i.e. legal sedatives or sleeping pills in
their bloodstream.The second most common substance group was amphetamines which were found in
46 per cent of the people who got caught.These results are from Karjalainen’s PhD dissertation which she completed in
2011. Karjalainen researched driving under the influence of drugs in
Finland.“Benzodiazepines are good and efficient drugs and they are mostly used
correctly for medicinal purposes. However, they are also abused in order to get
intoxicated and have properties that impair the driving skills.”

Most DUI offenders are men

Most DUI offenders are men and the share of women is about 10 percent.

Driving under the influence of alcohol is most common among young and
middle-aged men, whereas driving under the influence of drugs is most common in
men in their twenties.

DUI offenders are socially more disadvantaged and less educated when
compared with the average Finnish population.